Lead the way BananaBun
by la-perla's mermaid
Summary: The story of the superhero that inspired Judy to make the world a better place


Authors Note: I don't own anything BUT: BananaBun is a creation by Big Gee Wizz, he also made the cover image for this fic and Cimar Wildehopps created the masked fox, his story is amazing I recommend you read it.

It's sunday morning in the Hopps burrow and all the little kits gather around the TV to watch their cartoons. Triumphant songs plays on the large device and a narrator says:

-"This is 29 Acacia Road. And this is Jimmy. He's a bunny who leads an amazing double life. For when Jimmy eats a banana an amazing transformation occurs. Jimmy is BananaBun!"-

The adults scoff at the silliness of the cartoon, seriously a rabbit that fights crime and gets superpowers when eating bananas? If anything it's demeaning, the main character is basically a "Dumb bunny" stereotype mashed together with every old superhero trope in existence.

But Judy is five years old and doesn't understand or care about that, all the cartoon or movies she ever saw showed bunnies like these meek little victims that always get attacked scared by villains while the big heroes (usually megafauna) have to run and defend them. Bunnies aren't weak, she has seen her dad and her brothers lift three times their weight when it's time to collect the harvest and load it in the trucks. She believes they are not cowards either. Now here is this superhero rabbit punching bad guys ten times his size! He makes mean foxes and greedy weasels cower in fear!

-"And remember kits, always fight for justice no matter what stands in the way! We can all make this world a better place"- A cartoon rabbit clad in a tacky blue suit and neon yellow cape says winking at the camera before flying away at the end of every episode.

She dressed like BananaBun for halloween two years in a row, her siblings teased her because of the tacky costume and her aunts complained that dressing up as a male cartoon wasn't right for a lady doe. This is around the time where she got the nickname "Jude the dude" because she would rather play in imaginary battles with her brothers than stay inside and play with her dolls. Over and over again she would pretend to defend the innocent from evil doers.

But she carried on without a care, pretending to fly while running around in the fields of carrots, picking them up and pretending they were bananas and that once she ate them she'll get super speed and super strength.

Unfortunately part of growing up means you lose some of those dreams and hopes. She is seven now, smart happy and overly energetic even for a rabbit, and that's saying a lot. The class teacher is an elderly armadillo that has a bulletproof patience honed over years of dealing with classrooms filled with bunny kits, so when Judy tells her excited

-"When I grow up I'm gonna be a superhero like BananaBun. I'm gonna beat up criminals and protect the innocent"- While puffing out her chest and looking at the sky, the teacher is quick to explain her that is not possible.

-"Why not?- she says inquisitive cocking her head

-"Because superheroes don't exist, in the real world the only ones who do that are the police"-

She frowned for a few minutes as her fantasies were crushed, but Judy being Judy quitting on her dreams was not a possibility, so she came to the most rational conclusion -"Well I'm gonna be a cop then"

-"That's not possible either"- The elderly teacher told her condescending while shaking her head

-"Why not?-

-"Bunnies cant be cops, they're just too small"-

-"Do cops exist?"- She said with a smug smile

-"Yes"- The teacher said exhausted, if she had a nickel for every smart ass bunny that has tried to outsmart her.

-"Is it possible to become one?"- Her smug grin was getting wider

-"Well yes but…"-

-"Then I'll become a cop just like the other mammals did"-

Sigh, there was no winning with this one, the jaded teacher thought. It was better just to go along with kits craziness sometimes, after all their quirky ideas often go as fast as they come.

-"Of course Judy, you can be a cop when you grow up"- Said the armadillo in a placatory tone that didn't hide her sarcasm.

But Judy can't read sarcasm just yet, she's too trusting for her own good so she takes the words at face value. In the end being a cop isn't that different from being a superhero, they even have a cool uniform, too bad they can't wear capes those are really cool.

Two years later she will make an entire stage play were she will shout to the world of her dreams of being a cop, but what she really wants is to make the world a better place just like her hero, being a cop is just the most realistic way to do that.

Fifteen years later

Judy is 24 now, she has spent years at home preparing for being a cop and moths in the academy training. No matter how many times they told her she was crazy or how many times they said she couldn't do it her resolve never wavered and until recently she had thought she had proved them wrong. Yet now she's not so sure, because she's wearing a tacky yellow meter maid jacket over her new blue uniform while her feet are soiled with cement, because it doesn't matter that she trained so hard and was valedictorian of her class when her boss won't let her prove herself, because it looks like she'll be nothing but a meter maid for the rest of her life. And above all because she has once again been bullied by a fox, not by claws but by words, and just like fifteen years ago she couldn't do anything about it.

So after a very awkward conversation with her family she slumped in her bed and begun to browse on ewetube, something in the Zoogle algorithm must have gotten triggered because she caught a glimpse of that dumb cartoon she had liked so much as a kit.

Sometimes when you revisit a cartoon from your childhood as an adult it's easy to get disappointed, especially in this age of continuous nostalgia that makes us see everything in the past with rose colored glasses. Oh the plots are super dumb, the premise even more so, but she still enjoys it because it knew what it was and never pretended to be more than an innocent cartoon created to make kits laugh.

-"Dr Julius Brian Spook" An evil fox scientist obsessed with his quest to take over the world purely through boredom. It will be up to BananaBun to stop him from banning laughter all over the world"- The narrator explains at the beginning of the episode.

Judy laughed at the sight of that grumpy bitter spoilsport of a fox, well doesn't he remind her of someone. It's a bit too easy for her to pretend she's the superhero that will defeat this evil fox who wants to crush her dreams, no she means! to bore everyone to death.

It draws a smile on her face, it makes her forget about her current predicament of loneliness and it takes her back to the times she was just a kit and laughing at the TV every sunday morning with her siblings.

Yeah a banana fueled superhero is a dumb crazy idea, yet it did what it was set to do, it made kits laugh and filled them with hope. A rabbit cop is another crazy dumb idea, but it became a reality nonetheless, whether her boss and that city fox like it or not.

Two years later

She's twenty seven now, she has become an accomplished officer set on the way to become a detective. Shortly after entering the force she along with Nick had solved a conspiracy and saved the city from destroying itself. While doing so she found a great partner who became her best friend.

BananaBun was adapted to the silver screen as yet another need less gritty reboot the industry likes to churn out constantly to cash in on nostalgia. Critics panned the film bemoaning it's lack of originality and overuse of worn out tropes.

But guess what, Judy doesn't care in the slightest, she's gonna rush to the theatre on her day off and watch her personal hero in all his glory.

Nick doesn't mind going with her, while he hadn't even heard of that silly superhero while growing up, he understands why this is important to her -"You know when I was little I loved the masked fox, I collected all his comics. It's just that foxes are always the bad guys in fiction, they were always the criminals, the untrusty and the thieves. Then came the masked fox, he was the first vulpine hero ever created. Sure even he had a sneaky side and did some stuff against the law but he always fought for what was right and in turn he was admired instead of being discriminated for his species"- He explained her with a knowing smile while chugging on a huge bowl of popcorn, the movie hasn't started yet and he has eaten half of it already.

The critics were wrong, that movie was a blast. It changed a lot from the source material but it kept the essence of the original cartoon while adapting it to modern times. The humor went from the classics like slipping on banana peels to a modern fourth breaking tongue in cheek sarcasm, the cute podgy frame of the 2D cartoon was replaced with a buff handsome actor doing antics behind a 3D enhanced background.

The movie ends with BananaBun flying proudly on the sky once more in full live action HD glory, but still vowing to make the world a better place.

After watching it she was kinda disappointed of the change in tone, it was supposed to be a heartfelt funny story and not an action hero stravaganza, but it reflected the change in society. A hero bunny used to be such a crazy nonsensical idea that it had to be played for laughs in a sunday morning cartoon, now after her act of heroism and with new bunnies showing up in armed forces proving their bravery every day, the idea of a superhero rabbit isn't so laughable anymore.

Still the fact that he's still powered by bananas makes it even more ridiculous than the original concept, Nick doubted that the cartoon was this funny and he laughed most of the time.

Shortly after the release of the movie there was a slew of bunny kits dressed up as BananaBun vowing to make the world a better place. Critics and snobs can scoff all they want, this "silly" cartoon had a much more positive impact than many serious movies ever did.


End file.
